Randy Read

doctoral_advisor = Michael N. G. James (born 9 June 1957) is a professor of protein crystallography at the University of Cambridge and was a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow.

Education Read was educated at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1986

Career and research Following his PhD, Read was appointed assistant professor from 1988 to 1993 and associate professor from 1993 to 1998 at the University of Alberta. Science, the Journal of Applied Crystallography Acta Crystallographica, Structure, PNAS, the Journal of Molecular Biology and the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Awards and honours Read was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014. His nomination reads: centred Professor Read is known internationally for his outstanding and fundamental contributions to the development of macromolecular crystallographic software. His application of maximum likelihood based algorithms to the solution of macromolecular crystal structures by molecular replacement (a technique that uses a known structure of a homologue to solve an unknown structure) has resulted in software (Phaser) that is foremost in the field. He also devised and demonstrated an improved likelihood target function for model refinement that has been adopted by all major refinement programs. In addition, Professor Read has led structural work that has made significant contributions to understanding the mechanisms of proteins relevant to disease (bacterial toxins and serpins). and the A. L. Patterson Award of the American Crystallographic Association in 2026.